PAMPLONA, Spain -- The first sprint at the annual running-of-the-bulls festival in Pamplona, Spain, has gone in the books as messy, dangerous and a bit slower than usual.

Nine members of the crowd that ran with the bulls suffered bumps and bruises. And at least two of the bulls slipped and fell and got trampled. But officials said nobody got gored. (View slideshow here.)

It was the first of eight daily dashes through Pamplona's cobblestone streets and took about four minutes.

The event is part of Pamplona's annual San Fermin festival, popularized by the writings of the late U.S. author Ernest Hemingway.

Things got chaotic when the six half-ton bulls got separated. One of them got turned around several times and tried to go back to the starting point.

At the end of the course where runners and bulls pour into the bullring, one of the bulls fell down and stayed there for about a minute, as cheering runners scampered around him.

There hasn't been a fatal injury in the bull run since 2003. On Sunday, a young man died when he fell about 90 feet off a wall. Pamplona police said they don't know if he was there for the festival.